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iviuEAL PICTURE 



PHILADELPHIA. 



THE VIRTUES AND FRAUDS AND FOLLIES 
OF THE CITY DELINEATED, 



BY LOED E— , 



FORMERLY OF ENGLAND, NOW A NATURALIZED CITIZEN 
AND RESIDENT OF PHILADELPHIA. ' 



..^^a^' 

COPYRIGHT SECURED. 






PHILADELPHIA : 
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 

■ ' '-- 1845. 



DEDICATION. 



This small work is respectfully dedicated to the people of Philadel- 
phia. The author has had a pleasant home in your midst the last eight 
years, and has received much kindness from many of you. Your free 
institutions and rising greatness drew me from afar. I have rejoiced 
in the success and prosperity of the United States. Though horn in a 
foreign land, I have ever deemed myself a Republican in principle. It 
was chiefly my preference for republicanism that brought me hither 
from beyond the Atlantic. Whilst I commend you for much, I hope 
you will excuse me wliile I point out some of your faults. Ma^iy, 
indeed, among you deserve no censure. I point out errors that they 
may be removed, and tell of frauds and impositions, that the innocent 
and confiding may be on their guard. When I speak of faults, it is 
more in sorrow than in anger. My heart and soul are with America. 
Your star of liberty has guided me hither. I have renounced the titles 
that I bore among the proudest sons of England, and have sworn alle- 
giance to your government. This work is devoted chiefly to Philadel- 
phia; I love your fair city, and have spent many thousands for its 
improvement. Here I have been happy, though living in comparative 
obscurity. At some future period I may write a work of a more 
general character. Your most obedient servant, 

THE AUTHOR. 



• ^ A MORAL PICTURE, &c. 



MERCHANTS AND DEALERS GENERALLY. 

In no country are there greater stimulants to industry 
and enterprise than in America. In no country does a 
man's success in making a fortune. depend more on his 
own efforts. This is owing, in a good measure, to the 
liberal system of government. Here man is left free to 
act for himself, and the genius of enterprise untrammeled 
calls forth its giant energies. The commerce and trade 
of Philadelphia have progressed rapidly ever since the 
city was founded by William Penn. 

The merchants and traders of this city should study 
more political economy. But few of them are much ac- 
quainted with this useful science. If they would study 
more the nature of currency, they would be less under 
the influence of banks, and would not rise and fall at 
their nod, and by their expansions and contractions. 
They should study more respecting what constitutes the 
real wealth of the nation, and more respecting the great 
variety of causes that may affect the supply and demand, 
and consequently the prices of their articles of trade. 

The dealers in this city are probably as honest as those 
of any other city in the world. But still there is an 
abundance of tricks among them. The inexperienced 
storekeeper, who comes from the interior of the State, 
or from one of the Western or Southern States, to this 
city, to buy goods, is very apt to be badly bitten. Such 
instances as the following are not rare. An inexpe- 
rienced storekeeper arrives at one of our city hotels. A 
polite and foppish gentleman introduces himself to him. 
He treats him to a glass, escorts him to some of the lions 
of the city, gives him a ticket, and attends him to the 
theatre. He finally introduces him to one or several 



wholesale dealers. The stranger buys his goods from 
these dealers, not knowing that his new and polite ac- 
quaintance receives three or four per cent, on all the 
goods sold him. The first goods shown to a stranger 
are often offered to him at an exceedingly low rate, 
merely as a bait to allure him. He is sometimes told 
that such goods are fashionable and saleable, when they 
are entirely out of date. A retail dealer often advertises, 
sometimes by a paper affixed to his window, that he is 
selling off at cost, or below cost, or that his goods are 
the cheapest in the city. These notices are most gene- 
rally deceptive. It is a bad symptom when the dealer 
sells the same articles at different prices. This is often 
done even by those who boast of having one price stores. 
Occasionally merchants sell some articles below cost, 
merely to draw custom. This is often done by men who 
have newly opened. This is bad policy, and is rather 
ungenerous towards others who sell the same articles. 
In buying a whole piece of calico or other goods, the pur- 
chaser should see that it has the manufacturer's stamp, 
with the number of yards. If this be torn off and another 
card affixed, he has generally to pay for one or two more 
yards than the manufacturer intended. 

It is a hard lesson for man to learn, that honesty is 
not only his duty, but that it is also productive of his 
interest. I have a high moral respect for the upright 
man of business. It is easier to be generous than to be 
strictly honest. Generosity is a low quality, a mere im- 
pulse, compared with the lofty virtue I speak of. It is 
indeed easier to be a martyr than a man of lofty moral 
uprightness. From my deepest soul I honor the man 
who stands amidst all the temptations and interests of 
trade, firm, disinterested and upright ; him, whose mind 
his own advantage does not blind or cloud for an in- 
stant ; who could sit a judge on a question between him- 
self and his neighbor, just as safely as the purest magis- 
trate on the bench of justice. Rigid honesty is grand 
and majestic. 



A gentleman wishing to purchase a piano for his wife 
or daughter, goes to a teacher of music to select one for 
him. He pays the teacher five dollars for his trouble. 
The teacher selects one, telling him that it is finely tuned 
and an excellent instrument. He plays and sings a tune 
with much feeling and in a charming manner. The 
gentleman purchases the instrument for four or five hun- 
dred dollars. He does not know that the teacher re- 
ceives from the dealer twenty-five or thirty dollars for 
his recommendation. The piano is probably worth but 
about one third of the price paid. This species of 
swindling is conducted in a genteel and musical style. 
No man should buy goods at auction, unless he is well 
acquainted with the worth of what he purchases. There 
are various ways in which advantage is taken in this 
mode of sale. The auctioneer himself, or one employed 
for the purpose, frequently bids against the purchaser. 
When an article is bid up to a certain price, it is not a 
sure evidence that any one is willing to pay that for it. 

Often do gentlemen and ladies suppose themselves be- 
decked with rings and chains of gold, when their highly 
prized ornaments are made out of brass or some baser 
metal. The genteel wine toper often imagines that he is 
drinking the champagne of other lands, when he is only 
gulping down the juice of Jersey apples ; or that he is 
sipping imported brandy, when he is swallowing trans- 
muted rye whiskey. Our jewellers and chemists have 
made many improvements in their arts. Occasionally 
miserable paintings, mere daubs, are sold at high prices, 
because they are supposed to be the production of some 
famous artist, or because they bear sor|te marks of a 
venerable antiquity. 

Frequently a man engaged in some unprofitable and 
dishonored business, sells out the "good will" for a 
handsome sum. His health, he says, requires him to 
travel southward, and no other inducement would lead 
him to decline business. As well mig-lit one of the ca- 
nine species give a good bone of beef to be called mad 



6 

dog, as for a man to purchase a " good will," such as he 
daily sees advertised. As a body, our merchants and 
traders have a respectable standing, and some of them 
are truly intelligent, enterprising and upright men. 



LITERATURE AND PERIODICALS. 

We import too much literature from abroad. Much 
of it is anti-republican and aristocratic in its character 
and tendency. It is a strange fact that Americans, and 
even those who cry out most boisterously against foreign 
influence, generally prefer foreign publications to those 
of their own land. I would tell the American people, 
that the foreign publications that circulate among them, 
are more dangerous to their liberties and morals than all 
the oppressed men of other soils, that seek protection 
under the shadow of their eaofle's winsfs. We have indeed 
received many useful lessons on law and government from 
other lands ; even their very errors have taught us wis- 
dom. Much of our knowledge of science and the arts 
has been imported. It is, indeed, because we are all of 
foreign origin that we are wiser than the wild Indians of 
the forest. It is, however, now time for us to strike out 
a new path for ourselves. We should seek to establish 
an American national literature, deeply imbued with the 
spirit of genuine republicanism. Even the novels and 
other works of fiction brought from beyond the Atlantic, 
are 'calculated to inculcate anti-democratic principles. 
Such works, too, as are brought here, are often immoral 
in their bearing. An international copy-right law would 
at least tend to check the circulation of these works 
among us. Few works from abroad, except those on 
the physical sciences and arts, are suited to benefit Ame- 
ricans. More encouragement should be given to Ameri- 
can talent and genius. 

The periodicals published in the United States com- 
prise a large portion of our literature. Philadelphia does 
her full share in publishing and sending abroad periodi- 



cals. A considerable portion of these are worse than 
useless to the community. The Saturday Courier, Sa- 
turday Post, Graham's Magazine, Godey's Lady's Book, 
et id omne genus, are but little adapted to improve the 
minds of the people. The two latter are neatly ^o^ up, 
and their pictures display some skill and taste, and at 
least may do well to amuse children. But shame on the 
extolled literature of such papers as those mentioned. 
Their contents are chiefly miserable imaginative trash. 
It is remarkable, that many of the trifling and sickly 
tales of these papers, even when written by Americans, 
have their scenes laid in Europe, and the hero at last 
generally stands forth in great dignity, a count, earl, 
duke, or king. This is surely not democratic or truly 
American. When the scene is laid in America, the hero 
generally turns out to be a man of wealth, or a military 
or civil officer. Such tales do not become a people pro- 
fessing political equality. These tales seldom inculcate 
any great moral truth, and have often a pride-engender- 
ing and debasing tendency. The deep thinkers and 
really learned men of our country, regard such periodi- 
cals with something like contempt. Even the editors of 
other papers, when they write commendatory notices of 
these periodicals' in their papers, do it with a sly grin of 
derision. There is little in these periodicals to awaken 
the deep powers of intellect and to elevate man. 

The partisan political papers of our city are less se- 
vere and violent in their denunciations of opponents, 
than political papers generally through the United 
States. They present to their readers many able articles 
on law and government. With all their errors, they are 
of essential service to the welfare of the country. Among 
the political editors in this city, are men of fine talents 
and scholarship. Their papers would compare advan- 
tageously, intellectually considered, with any political 
papers published in the world. The political sentiments 
of even the most objectionable of them, are far superior 
to any published in the old world. There are indeed 



s 

many evils resulting from a party spirit. But should 
party spirit entirely die away, our Republic would fall. 
Party spirit constitutes a portion of the life and soul of 
our Republic. 

Neither a book nor a paper of high scientific and lite- 
rary character, can obtain an extensive circulation among 
us. It is pleasing, however, to see that a higher literary 
and scientific taste is gradually progressing among the 
people. Indeed, I believe that the people now would 
Avillingly accept of much of a better and deeper cast, than 
many of our publishers seem to suppose, I think that 
both our publishers and authors somwhat undervalue 
the capacities of the reading community. It should be 
stated to their credit, that the religious papers of our city 
take a tolerably high stand, not only in morals, but also 
in science and literature. This is an evidence that re- 
ligion is the true friend of science and literature. 

It is truly melancholy to behold the vast amount of 
the husks and poison of literature, that is greedily de- 
voured in our city. Bishop Onderdonk's trial sells ra- 
pidly. It admirably gratifies the idle curiosity and 
impure taste of thousands. The scenes of immodesty 
and indelicacy depicted in that work give to it its chief 
attraction and charm. 



EDUCATION IN PHILADELPHIA. 

There is much interest taken by the people of Phila- 
delphia in the subject of education. The views of the 
people generally, however, are quite too narrow and 
hmited on the subject. Education should be regarded 
as a system of means for developing all the intellectual, 
moral and physical faculties. In educating youth, our 
object should be a high and noble one ; to form not 
merely laborers, or artisans, or storekeepers, but men — ■ 
full grown men, qualified to discharge aright the duties 
which they owe to themselves, their neighbors, their 
country, and their God. 



That is a very contracted view of education, which 
regards it merely as a system of training to quahfy an 
individual for making money. If all were to become 
thus grovelhng in their views of education, what an 
aspect of dull insipidity would society speedily assume ! 
It would soon relapse into that state of darkness and bar- 
barism from which it was emancipated about four hun- 
dred years ago, by the study of higher subjects than 
those that qualify merely to make money. 

That education is most useful to a man which is most 
conducive to his happiness. Yet people generally mean 
by a useful education, such an one as tends to get 
money ; as if making money were the great end of man's 
being. That training which fits a man for his trade or 
profession is deemed useful. The time spent in general 
education, especially if it interferes with that which ena- 
bles a man to get his livelihood and make money, is 
often regarded as thrown away. Yet men' may be very 
excellent in their trades and professions, and at the same 
time may be very ignorant, degraded and unhappy. Men 
should be enabled to spend their time well when with 
their families, their neighbors, and more particularly 
when with themselves. General education is required 
for this purpose. It requires considerable education for 
a man to enjoy his own company. 

One great object in establishing our public schools, 
was to prepare the rising generation for becoming intel- 
ligent citizens of our Republic. Every man in our State 
entitled to a vote is a legislator. From the people is de- 
rived all power to make laws. Yet even in our high 
schools, scarcely any thing is taught of the principles of 
law and legislation, and of the structure of our own 
government. Political economy, too, a knowledge of 
which is essential to form an enlightened citizen, is much 
neglected. I know well from my own observation, that 
even the graduates of our high schools would stand but 
a poor examination on these topics, so important to an 
American citizen. 

r 



10 

Without the least hesitation, the system and mode of 
education pursued in our public schools may be pro- 
nounced very defective. The pupils are treated too 
much as mere machines. They are not thrown suffi- 
ciently on their own resources, and taught to think and 
reason for themselves. The plan is too methodical. 
Knowledge is imparted to the mind, as water is sent 
into a cistern through a pipe. The worst features in 
the system have been brought from abroad. It was 
truly a foolish step to send agents to Europe to obtain 
information on the subject of instruction. Must we go 
to despotic governments for light to aid us in guiding 
aright the children of a republic? I know well that 
men of distinction have passed high encomiums on the 
plan of education pursued in Philadelphia; but distin- 
guished men often err egregiously, and are apt to take 
pleasure in passing compliments. 

Philadelphia is not more learned or moral than it was 
twenty years ago. Few of the great men in Philadelphia 
have been educated in the city. This is no encomium 
on our schools. There are many temptations in the city 
to divert the minds of youth from study. One great cause, 
however, why any of our schools have produced so few 
good fruits, may be found in the conduct of parents. 
They do not properly instruct their children at home, 
nor keep them under due restraint. Wealthy parents, 
and some too in but moderate circumstances, seem anx- 
ious to make idle gentlemen^of their sons. They remove 
the stimulants to industry and enterprise from them. 
Behold that young man, finely dressed, sporting a cane, 
extremely polite to all his acquaintances — especially the 
ladies ! He is quite independent. His father wishes 
him to be a gentleman. The son uses uncourteous lan- 
guage to his superiors ; he reads daily an hour or two 
in some lawyer's or physician's office ; he looks with 
contempt on the honest apprentice, whose generous soul 
would outweigh a thousand as light as his own. The 
companions he chooses are like himself, puffed up with 



11 

vanity and swelling with importance. He rides, sails, 
and attends parties of pleasure. It is plain that such a 
3^outh must turn out a low, despised and miserable tool. 
If he escape the penitentiary or gallows, it will be to 
hang like an incubus on his friends and society. You 
may meet such young men at every corner in our streets, 
and at public resorts. To be prosperous as a people, 
each one must do his part. Parents, rich or not, should 
not permit their great lubberl)'" boys to hang on them for 
support. Make them work, either with mind or body. 
You do them mucli wrong while you dandle them in 
folly and mature them in extravagance. Let them see 
that they must depend on themselves, as you have done 
before them. If your great boys will not work, you 
should not support them. We want not a nation of idlers 
and paupers. Drive them away, if they are lazy, and it 
will be for their good and 5^our honor in the end. Idle- 
ness and extravagance invariably produce vice and 
poverty. No matter how many thousands you may be- 
queath to the indulged idler, be assured he will, in all 
probability, be a miserable wretch. 

The education in our schools is very superficial. 
Vearious branches are professedly taught ; but the learner 
gains but a very imperfect knowledge of any of them. 
We are too partial to compends and abridgments of 
science. There is a disposition to learn, as it were, by 
steam. Not one, out of fifty that pretend to study the 
French and Italian languages, becomes even tolerably 
acquainted with those languages. The labor and ex- 
pense are lost. We need more thorough work in edu- 
cation. 

Our young ladies finish their education at too early 
an age, and, by the by, their mothers allow them to 
marry quite too young. They learn to play one or two 
tunes on the piano, to sing one or two songs, to produce 
a ^Qw specimens of painting and drawing, and prattle a 
few sentences in French, and are counted quite accom- 
plished ; and at the same time are often quite ignorant. 



12 

Their knowledge is no less superficial on the solid 
branches of education than in the accomplishments. 
There are but few truly educated and accomplished la- 
dies among us. Our daughters fly aloft too soon ; their 
wings tire, and their efforts to waft themselves onward 
are relaxed. Their education should be deeper, broader, 
higher, and continued longer. If parents do not educate 
with reference to making money, it is too apt to be with 
reference to making a show. 

Philadelphia abounds with many literary societies, 
with respectable libraries attached. These societies exert 
but little influence compared with what they should. 
Proper lectures and other public performances should be 
more encouraged. There has been a decline in the 
effective usefulness of these institutions. The theatres 
and circuses have now greatly the ascendancy. The 
books in the libraries of the societies are much in want 
of readers. The literary halls are in a great measure 
deserted. 

Boyhood and girlhood seem to be extinct in our city. 
The Philadelphians are all either babies or men and 
women. The boy resigns the nipple of his mother's 
breast, that he may put a cigar in his mouth. We see 
no longer boys at innocent pastimes, but see them as 
miniature men, dressed up in frock coats, with gloves 
and canes. Their faces are grave and thoughtful ; the 
boy struts the man. When a boy apes the man at an 
early age, he is apt to remain but a boy all his life. The 
irirls are not allowed to a'ive forth the sensitive and 
generous impulses of their natures. They are little wo- 
men ; and their very dolls wear bustles. They are deep 
in the mysteries of the toilet; they assume a demure 
air ; they smile and sing methodically. It is wrong and 
cruel to check the buoyancy and joyous outbreak of 
these young creatures. Scarcely are they out of their 
nurses' arms, before their mothers talk to them gravely 
of husbands. The happy and cheerful days of boyhood 
and girlhood seem to have fled. When infants begin to 



13 

walk, they at once bounce up into manhood and woman- 
hood. 

We need moderation. The progress of mind is too 
rapid for human happiness. Parents, treat your boys and 
girls as such! Keep your eyes upon them! Watch 
when they go out, and where they go. Keep your boys 
from the street corners, particularly on the Sabbath. 
Remember that there is no school of education like the 
school of home ; and no teacher so powerful, for good 
or evil, as a parent. It is at home that the better and 
nobler feelings of the heart are called forth. It is there 
that patriotism begins. It is there that the energies of 
the mind are awakened. There is laid the foundation 
of worth and distinction. No public system of education 
will avail much in elevating our youth, and producing 
ornaments to our country, unless parents do their duty. 

I would say to parents, keep your daughters from dis- 
tant boarding schools, if it is at all convenient for you to 
have them educated under your own eyes. 



SOCIETY IN HIGH LIFE. 

The doctrine of equality is by no means practically 
recognized in our city. Distinctions are formed here 
from the most discreditable reasons. Undoubtedly men 
will prefer, as their common associates, those with whom 
they most sympathize. But there is a splitting of society 
into ranks or castes, by the power of money. Wealth is 
more effective in elevating a man in society, than virtue 
or intelligence. To be prosperous is not to be superior, 
and should form no barrier between men. The only 
distinctions which should be recognized are those of the 
soul, of strong principle, of cultivated intellect, of useful- 
ness. A man, in proportion as he has these claims, should 
be honored and welcomed every where, A man is worth 
infinitely more than costume, saloons, equipage, and the 
show of the universe. He was made to tread all these 
beneath his feet. The present deference to dress and 



14 

upholstery is an insult to humanity ; as if silk-worms 
and looms, scissors and needles, could produce some- 
thing nobler than a man. This is a contemptible species 
of pride, and in no country beneath the sun is it more 
unbecomin<? than in this land. Shall we break the tie 
of conmion humanity, and alienate man from his brother, 
by the force of money? Shall we found a caste on out- 
ward prosperity, and thus exalt the outward above the 
inward, the material above the spiritual ? 

A man of wealth, however ignorant, vulgar and pro- 
fligate he may be, can here mingle witli what is deemed 
the most genteel society. The influence of wealth 
reaches the courts of justice. A wealthy man can 
scarcely be even imprisoned for any crime. He may 
commit the most foul and deliberate murder, and there 
is not the most remote probability that he will be hung. 
In application to the rich, capital punishment is fully 
abolished. Rarely will a father, however virtuous and 
religious he may be, refuse the hand of a daughter in 
marriage to an unprincipled and licentious man, if lie 
be a man of property. An intelligent and virtuous lady 
will often marry a vile and abandoned man, for no other 
cause, it v/ould seem, than his wealth. O gold ! thou 
dost always triumph, even in a republic ! Who can 
withstand thee ? Thou leadest the feet of beauty ! The 
man of business bows obsequiously to thee ! The man 
of fashion falls before thee, and the miser clutches thy 
garment as though it were the curtain of Heaven ! 

A work is now published in New York city, which is 
devoted to the great work of giving information to the 
public respecting the amount of men's wealth. Such a 
work would no doubt be well patronized in our city, as 
the momentous question, Jioio rich is he ? is often anx- 
iously asked. 

The ladies of Philadelphia, as it regards dress, are 
under foreign influence. The materials of their dress 
are chiefly foreign, and also the cut and make. They 
yield obedience to the law of dress first promulgated in 



15 

France by some worthless milliner. They should have 
spirit and independence enough to establish their own 
modes of dress. They copy too much after foreigners, 
and are too much the creatures of mere imitation, to be 
the daughters of a free and independent republic. They 
will even deform themselves, that they may follow a 
foreign rule of foshion. We laugh at the savages, who 
pull down their ears with weights, who flatten their 
heads, and wear drum-sticks and human scalps in their 
noses. But how is their folly greater than that of a well 
formed lady, who pinches her feet out of all due propor- 
tions, and presses her well-shaped waist into a waspish 
and uncouth figure, to oblige an unprincipled French 
milliner ? They often sacrifice health, and even life, at 
the shrine of fashion. Fashion, to some extent, regulates 
their modesty and their blushes. There are exceptions ; 
but our lovely ladies should all turn aloof from the 
fashions of a foreign and licentious people. Many of the 
fashions copied here originate from the personal defor- 
mities and immodest demeanor of ladies in high but 
ignoble life in Paris. Think of an American lady 
making apparently a crooked, humpbacked person of 
herself, by means of a bustle, simply because a worthless 
though rich woman in Paris wore a bustle to hide a 
deformity resulting from disease ! Our ladies should 
instruct conductors of periodicals to omit the publication 
of foreign fashions. If our ladies were left to their own 
judgment and taste, they would exhibit more simplicity 
and a truer elegance of dress. 

Our fops, who ape after foreign fashions, and wear 
mustaches and imperials, and long hair hanging down 
the face and shoulder, cut so absurd and ridiculous a 
figure, that there is little danger of such fiishions becom- 
ing general. It is at any rate sometimes useful that pro- 
minent tokens should indicate wlio are the fools of so- 
ciety. Tufts of hair above and under the snout answer 
admirably as badges of this kind of distinction. It is not 



16 

now necessary to hire men to act as buflbons, as a suffi- 
cient number serve gratuitously; 

To uphold the great doctrine of equality, the constitu- 
tion of the United States forbids a citizen to hold any 
title of nobility. This seems to be a hard command to 
the people, as they have fabricated a great variety of 
honorary names, and make much use of military titles. 
It is surprising to witness the great attention and de- 
ference they pay to the titled nobleman of Europe who 
lands on our shore. The writer speaks from his own 
personal experience. After he first arrived in this coun- 
try, he travelled considerably through the United States, 
and for awhile he retained the title which he bore in 
the old country. Much deference and even obsequious- 
ness were manifested towards him. He was pained and 
astonished. He had thought that the belief in men's 
equality had taken a deep hold of the minds of Ameri- 
cans. After he dropped his title and was plain Mr. — , 
no longer was any high respect paid him. This is an 
evil that should be corrected. Let the titled nobility of 
Europe be treated only as common men ; let them see 
that we are democrats indeed. It is the fashionable up- 
starts that are quickest in paying such deference. Na- 
ture's true noblemen never bow low to the titled any 
where. 



A GLANCE AT CRIMES AND IMPOSITIONS. 

I am not going to write a legal dissertation on crimes ; 
there is abundance of such writing in our law books. I 
only wish to throw out a few useful hints on the sub- 
ject, applicable to Philadelphians. The law guards our 
property, and is a shield against the assassin's dagger 
and the midnight incendiary. The mother smiles more 
confidingly on her infant, when she reflects that a na- 
tion's arm is pledged for its security. It is the duty of 
every citizen, not only to obey the law, but to support 



17 

and defend it, A man who unites with a mob to destroy 
property or life, or to commit any outrage, is guilty of 
one of the most serious crimes, whatever may be the 
provoking cause. Such a man is more dangerous to the 
peace and welfare of society than an incarnate devil let 
loose on earth. I detest the man who would even sym- 
pathize with a mob under any circumstances. It is the 
duty of every American citizen sacredly to sustain law. 
Earth has never seen a despot who rode on a more fiery 
steed, or swayed a more bloody sceptre, or who trampled 
upon human rights with a more callous heart than 
anarchy. No matter what the public excitement — no 
matter how intense the irritation — that man is indeed 
suicidal who would let loose the blood-hounds of anarchy 
for retribution. When these furies sweep the street like 
the midnight's howling storm, they are variable in the 
objects of their desolation. Now the brothel is torn to 
pieces, and now the refined dwelling of piety is sacked 
and burned. The grog shop blazes to-day — the tem- 
perance hall to-morrow. The Catholic clergyman is 
hunted by the mob this week — the Protestant clergyman 
the next. A Catholic church is wrapped in flames this 
year — a Protestant church the next. Philadelphia has 
had frightful and deplorable scenes of mob law. The 
whole city trembled and stood aghast at the fiendish and 
bloody doings. There was stern resistance to the au- 
thorities of the land. Thousands, deemed good citizens 
before, seemed to say to the furious mob, go on ! Let 
now the sentiment be as immovable as the eternal gra- 
nite of the Kocky Mountains, that law must and shall be 
maintained. Let every true patriot hold himself a vo- 
lunteer, a minute-man, to defend law, and for her de- 
fence let him pledge life, fortune, and sacred honor. Let 
every man who encourages a mob be frowned upon as a 
traitor to his country. Hereafter let every editor in our 
city speak out bravely and resolutely, whenever danger 
threatens, or the storm rages, and not wait till the tem- 
pest is gone by. 1 know well, from the elements at work, 



18 

that men will again try to form mobs in our city, for the 
purpose of death and devastation. Let us be prepared 
for them. 

Every man should know that a criminal is punished 
by our laws for the prevention of crime, and not to gra- 
tify vindictive feelings. 

It is surprising with what cunning hundreds in our 
city violate some of our wisest laws, and yet escape de- 
tection and punishment. We have a severe penalty 
against selling lottery tickets, yet many are daily sold in 
our city. Numbers are beggared by the traffic. A se- 
vere penalty is denounced against gambling ; yet in 
various houses, and in some in the very vicinity of our 
halls of justice, money passes from hand to hand through 
the magic of cards and dice. Men will try their luck at 
all hazards. Gambling is an absorbing passion, and some 
men would play on a wife's or a father's grave, or on a 
dying bed. They will ruin themselves and their fami- 
lies in spite of the law that would save them. We have 
a severe law against selling liquor without license ; yet 
how often is this law violated ? Some^ of our reading- 
rooms encourage intemperance in a genteel and attractive 
style. " What will you take V' is there politely said by him 
who treats. In these rooms, literature and art are made 
to pay homage to the god Bacchus, the presiding deity. 

Prostitutes and their paramours parade our most fash- 
ionable streets in pompous array, seeming to take pride 
in making their true character known. They make their 
guilty assignments before the eyes and within the hear- 
ing of the modest wives and daughters of our good citi- 
zens. The girls of the pave are so numerous, that a vir- 
tuous female dare scarcely walk our streets alone at 
night, through fears of being taken for one of the guilty 
ones, and insulted. 

The crime of seduction is frequently committed in 
our city without punishment. Ladies, too, of the best 
standing, smile graciously on the well known seducer. 
The female who is the victim and the betrayed by perfi- 



19 

dy, is ot once forsaken by her sex. They seem to wish 
to make her destruction sure and complete. Yet the 
betrayer, the more gniUy one, often receives the cordial 
smiles of those who frown upon his victim. Shame on 
them ! When will this cease ? 

Thousands in our city have acted the villain, and in- 
flicted serious wrongs, through the means of membership 
in incorporated bodies ; being thus enabled to escape 
the law, and avoid individual obloquy and disgrace. 

There are various intelligence offices in our city, that 
take money daily from the poor, and by false directions, 
send them tramping through the city, sometimes for 
days, in vain efforts to procure situations. This is a 
cruel imposition, and worse than direct theft. The con- 
ductors of our papers should avoid the imputation of 
aiding and abetting in this crime, by refusing to publish 
the advertisements of these offices. Persons from the 
country are often allured by these advertisements. 

Poor woman ! Men drink toasts to her and call her 
an angel ; but they withhold from her her just rights. 
Our laws are very unjust towards woman, particularly 
in married life. The torch of Hymen kindles the fune- 
ral pile of all a woman's legal rights. With her name 
her very legal existence is merged in that of her hus- 
band. The husband becomes master of her person and 
property. If a man without a dollar marry a lady of 
personal estate, however large, it is all his at once abso- 
lutely ; he can squander it all immediately, or run off 
with it. The wife has no remedy. If the property is not 
all gone, all she can claim is a bare support. A wife 
may labor for the support of a drunken husband and her 
family, yet she cannot even collect her earnings if her 
husband forbid it. She cannot sue. The husband can 
take her all according to law. A lady may bring a large 
personal and real estate to her husband ; if the husband 
die, the law allows the widow one half of the personal 
estate, and one third of the real estate ; the remainder, if 
there are no children, would go to the husband's most 



20 

distant relatives rather than to his widow. If the wife 
die, the husband keeps all, both of the personal and real 
estate. And this is equal and exact justice to all ! This 
is elevating woman to an equal condition with man ! — 
Bah ! Truly man is a tyrant when he has the power; 
truly man makes the law, and not woman. This law in 
regard to woman is a disgrace to Pennsylvania. It has 
been derived from the common law of England, and ori- 
ginated in a dark and barbarous age, when woman was 
regarded as the slave of man. I pronounce this law a 
base imposition. 

Suicide is a crime that seems to be increasing in Phila- 
delphia, and indeed in all parts of the United States. 
One man kills himself because he is in pecuniary em- 
barrassment ; like a base coward, he sneaks out of the 
w<5rld, and leaves his family in want to buifet against 
the world without his aid. Another has been jilted and 
rejected by a young lady, and instead of bidding her a 
polite good-bye, and trying his luck with another, he kills 
himself This crime produces disagreeable sensations 
among relations. It is at best criminal, cowardly, and 
contemptible for a man to murder himself There is 
often very bad taste displayed in self-murder. Think of 
a well dressed gentleman heaving himself from one of 
the wharves into the Delaware, thereby disfiguring his 
dress and coming into contact widi filthy objects. It 
does well enough to drown superfluous puppies and 
kittens ; but it is very undignified for a man to drown 
himself To every Philadelphian I would say, whatever 
you do, do not murder yourself It is well that no man 
can look on and face the world after committing such a 
deed. 



FALSE PRETENDERS, IGNORANCE AND CRE- 
DULITY. 

The clouds of the dark ages still cast a portion of their 
shadows over our enlightened city. A man may make 



21 

the most absurd and ridiculous claims, and yet some in 
our midst will believe him. Many from our city have 
become Mormons. Hundreds during the last year, like 
people in the tenth century, believed that the world was 
to end. A crowd of genteel men and women fled from 
our city, thinking it doomed to destruction like Sodom 
of old, and encamped on the neighboring hills, awaiting 
old earth's destruction, with robes prepared in which to 
take their flight. We have several fortune-tellers in our 
city, and one astrologer, who make a livelihood by our 
people's credulity. A gentleman in our city, who has 
done a business to the amount of several hundred thou- 
sands, one of the all powerful wealthy, had a clock 
stolen. He went to a fortune-teller, and paid her fifty 
cents. She told him that at a certain old barn in the 
vicinity of the city, the thief with the clock might be 
seen about midnight. He wrapped his cloak around 
him, and taking a musket in his hand, repaired to the 
designated barn, and tarried there watching till after the 
midnight hour, but saw neither thief nor clock. Few 
have an idea of the number in our city that visit fortune- 
tellers, and the learned astrologer, Thomas Hague. Some 
pretend to laugh, and say they go for mere diversion, but 
they have some faith. Few of our money-loving people 
would give fifty cents or a dollar to one that lifts the veil 
of futurity, had they no faith. 

Hundreds in our city, even among the most intelligent, 
have gaped and stared like simpletons, and have actually 
believed that a person in a magnetic sleep could exer- 
cise the attribute of the All-seeing One, and really see 
objects in far distant rooms. I speak of clairvoyance, 
a most egregious folly. This foolish pretension has, 
night after night, drawn crowds. As to the magnetic 
sleep, there is nothing particularly mysterious about it, 
nor is it new. 

Numbers of quack physicians, with their wonderful 
medicines, flourish in our midst. We have purgative 
medicines, such as Brandreth's and Wright's, that will 



22 

cure any disease that originates from an impurity of the 
blood, and, according to tliem, all diseases originate from 
this cause. Both these gentlemen should be well dosed 
with their own pills ; this might purify their consciences. 
We have Jayne's Scarpa's Oil for all kinds of deafness. 
What nonsense ! We have various infallible remedies 
for the consumption. Then we have doctors in mesme- 
rism, who can see clearly through the whole human 
system, and tell precisely what may afflict any one. It 
is a pity that they cannot take a peep into their own 
brains, and see their own deficiency. We have cold 
water doctors, who can soak and splash any disease 
whatever out of a man. We have steam or Thompso- 
nian doctors, who can heat, sweat, and boil any sick man 
into health. Then we have a great variety who can 
cure " certain diseases" in a rapid and genteel manner. 
The advertisements of these latter speak but poorly for 
the morals of the community. Are there so many cases 
of these " certain diseases," that eight or ten physicians 
can make a living, by devoting their whole attention to 
them? 

We have men who can make hair grow plentifully on 
the bald head of an aged man, and can remove all 
wrinkles from his brow and cheeks ; who can, in short, 
make the old man young again. 

We live in a wonderful age. What science has burst 
upon us in the nineteenth century ! The success of igno- 
rant physicians in our midst, and the extensive sales of 
their medicines, present evidence to prove that there is 
much ignorance and credulity in our city. The ad- 
vertisements of these physicians and their medicines, are 
highly profitable to publishers. No doubt hundreds in 
our city are yearly sent to an untimely grave by ignorant 
physicians and puffed medicines. We have many learn- 
ed and skillful physicians in our city, to whom we should 
apply in case of sickness. They seldom advertise. 



23 



THEATRES. 

Our city supports four or five theatres. Their influ- 
ence is very pernicious, and they cost our people yearly 
many thousands. It has been said, that the theatre 
might be made a school of morals, but it never has been, 
and never will be. The immorality and immodesty of 
the theatre constitute its chief charm. Were sfood morals 
inculcated on the stage, there would be no attendance. 
Young ladies hear language on the stage, without blush- 
ing, which if uttered in presence of their parents, or in a 
private circle, would dye their cheeks with crimson. 
They have become accustomed to it, and the example of 
other ladies leads them to endure such language. They 
often, too, behold personal exposures on the stage, with- 
out a blush, which, if exhibited in their family circles, 
would drive them from the room. Theatres are most 
undoubtedly of a debasing and corrupt tendency. Let 
no father who loves good morals, whether he be a Chris- 
tian or not, ever take a beloved daughter to a theatre. 
There is less intellectuality now displayed in plays and 
performers than there was in years past. Very little in- 
tellectual improvement can be gained at our theatres, to 
. compensate in any degree for the moral poison imbibed. 
Seldom have more low buffoonery and outlandish 
scenes been tolerated on any stage, than are at present 
in our city. The actors and actresses, with but few ex- 
ceptions, are immoral and profligate. Their occupation 
has a tendency to destroy all good principles. The the- 
atres are the great doorways to the worst dens of ini- 
quity in our city, and they are well adapted to be such. 
If our honorable mobs had burnt down our theatres 
instead of Catholic Churches, they would have done less 
evil to the city. 

It is dishonorable to our city, and dishonorable to the 
age, that a prostitute woman, by mere art in dancing 
and a shameful exposure of person, should there make 
500 or 1000 dollars in an eveningf, whilst hundreds of 



24 

virtuous, intelligent and industrious females in our 
midst can scarcely, with the greatest efforts of honest 
labor, earn a livelihood. 

But why do our intelligent and dignified editors so 
puff and applaud our theatres ? Chiefly, I presume, to 
make money. Many of their patrons are pleased to read 
of the theatre, its plays, its actors and its actresses. The 
managers of theatres, too, advertise extensively in our 
papers, and give to publishers much job printing. They 
Are good customers to printing offices ; and then they 
bestow free tickets, and perhaps other favors. It is no 
wonder that our papers puff and applaud the theatres. 






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